Search Worlds Without End

In the old age of the once great planet Earth, the oceans have long dried up, and in their empty sea bottoms stand the last cities of mankind, for the once mighty continental heights are barren and frigid. The world is strewn with the ruins of the star-faring civilizations of the Dawn ages, and somewhere in those ruins lies the legendary Kingsworld Legacy -- which may yet save humanity. Trebor of Amballa possesses the key to the Legacy. But can he use it -- and will the remnants of a myriad lost nations let him?

A tongue-in-cheek horror fantasy. Uncle Albert is laid out in his coffin, dead as a doornail, and things are reasonably normal. But then Uncle Albert sits up and claims he has been robbed of his gold. It takes considerable effort to push him back again and get the lid fastened down.

In a world where men and women live like rats in the corridors and pantries of gigantic conquering aliens, one man battles an alien plan to decimate the remains of humankind.

Andy Thatcher, hero of a computerized role-playing game that has taken over the world, must come to terms with the fact that after more than a century of gaming, he must now face reality.

The mind-boggling epic adventure of a time-traveler torn between two nightmare worlds.

Race Worden was his name and he was a human being trying to live peacefully in his allotted niche on the colony world Mavia...until the day he moved a stone slab by mental projection. Until that moment, he had regarded himself as a simple pawn on the vast social board. But it raised him to a higher status at once.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1998. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixteenth Annual Collection (1999), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Year's Best SF 4 (1999), edited by David G. Hartwell.

A man without memory, in a city of robots gone wild.

At his side, a mysterious woman whose own identity he has reconstructed, and whose memories of him may be true or false. The young man calls himself Derec. In the shattering climax to his quest he discovers the shocking secret of his true identity.

Tormented by a nightmarish disease, Derec must face the genius Dr. Avery, and compel him to reveal the truth!